Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Greatest of Gifts Given or Received

“Our chief want is someone who
will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

For some it may be contemptible to
imagine there is a gift more highly prized than salvation. That may very well
be the bone of contention. But this, the greatest of gifts given or received,
is not in competition with salvation, but it complements it.

Is there anything more conducive
to the essential mode of acceptance than encouragement? How good does it feel
to have something we believe about ourselves from within confirmed about
ourselves from another person? All of us believers exist for want of
motivation, of inspiration, of encouragement to go on in life in the direction
we believe God is leading us.

We all need to be accepted, and
even for those who don’t care much about what other people think there is that
need.

The greatest gift to be given or
received is that gift of acceptance through the mode of encouragement; to know,
beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is someone loving enough to share a good,
specific word through an authentic heart for the truth they see.

When we come to know this
encouragement we come to realise that life is all about relationships.

Sowing into the Encouraging Life

Of course, it is our choice
whether we will give or receive encouragement.

People may choose to encourage us
and we may refuse to receive it, or we may bashfully reject it thinking we are
not worthy. Likewise, we may not see much in others to encourage and, therefore,
we may not have much time for giving encouragement.

There are people who have the gift
of encouragement, but everyone is gifted enough to encourage.

The truth of the matter is this:
the more we can receive others’ encouragement and the more we can encourage
others in active ways, with authenticity, not just for flattery sake, the more
abundant our experience of life is.

The more we immerse ourselves in
encouragement—both ways—the more we will be blessed by God in transformations
of relational value.

The more we encourage the more we
receive encouragement, and the more we live the rich spiritual life that was
always destined to be ours.

***

The greatest honour we have as
people is to encourage others, just as it’s the greatest honour to be
encouraged. There may not be a more profound and telling gift than encouraging
someone, who, for that time and state of being, needs it.